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Comparing death tolls from wars, pandemics is fraught By Will Stone and Carrie Feibel NPR News/TNS Counting the dead is one of the first, somber steps in reckoning with an event of enormous tragic scope, be it war, a natural disaster or a pandemic. This dark but necessary arithmetic has become all too routine during the COVID-19 outbreak. The total U.S death toll has now surpassed 463,000. Each death is unique, a devastating loss that ripples through a family, a network, a community. But in the aggregate, the national death toll can feel abstract, and its repetition in the news can become num...

Comparing death tolls from wars, pandemics is fraught By Will Stone and Carrie Feibel, Will Stone and Carrie Feibel, NPR News Published: February 14, 2021, 6:00pm Share: 2 Photos Influenza patients lie on cots at the U.S. Army Camp Hospital #45, Aix-les-Bains, France during the 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak. Public health officials are so worried about a flu pandemic, like the 1918 killer of 20 million people worldwide, that they are preparing localized response plans just as they do for hurricanes and earthquakes. (NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE/TNS) Photo Gallery C...

Jan. 21, 2021, offered another opportunity for historical comparison: That was the day when the COVID death toll in the U.S. reached — and then exceeded — the 405,399 Americans who died in World War II. For many, attempting to compare the two death tolls — or even take note of their brief conjunction — is misguided or offensive. It is certainly a morally fraught exercise.

Jan. 21, 2021, offered another opportunity for historical comparison: That was the day when the COVID death toll in the U.S. reached — and then exceeded — the 405,399 Americans who died in World War II. For many, attempting to compare the two death tolls — or even take note of their brief conjunction — is misguided or offensive. It is certainly a morally fraught exercise.

Comparing the death tolls of the coronavirus pandemic and to wars is considered misguided or offensive by many people. The true emotional and social impact of events like World War II, the Pearl Harbor attack or the Sept. 11 attacks can never be quantified. Yet, many media outlets still mention them.